Making WinPE Wait for Network in LTI Deployments

Making WinPE Wait for Network in LTI Deployments

In some environments, network device drivers and/or infrastructure take longer to load than WinPE waits before running the task sequence. This can be due to congested DHCP scopes, link negotiation latency or slow loading network drivers. In these cases, it is necessary to delay the start of the task sequence until a valid IP address is obtained otherwise the task sequence will fail.

In order to do this, you can create a script that will wait for a valid IP address before continuing on with the LiteTouch Wizard. The LiteTouch Wizard is launched using a RunSynchronous command in the Unattend.xml file for WinPE. MDT obtains this file from %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Deployment Toolkit\Templates folder. Here are instructions for doing this with MDT 2008 and an x86 Boot Image (UPDATE : MDT 2010 includes a wait by default):

1. Navigate to %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Deployment Toolkit\Templates and rename the Unattend_PE_x86.xml file to Unattend_PE_x86.old

4. Navigate to the WinPEFiles\Windows\System32 edit the file “WaitForIP.bat” replace <SERVERNAME> with the name of your WDS Server.

5. In the Deployment Workbench , navigate to the Deploy Node and right click on the LAB deploy point and choose Properties.

6. In the Windows PE tab under extra directory to add and Browse to the WinPEFiles folder created in step 3. Note: navigate to the WinPEFiles and not any of the sub directories. Click OK to apply the change.

7. In the Deployment Workbench , right click on the LAB Deploy point and choose “Update”

This post was contributed by Aly Shivji a consultant with Microsoft Services - U.S. East Region.

Disclaimer: The information on this site is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, confers no rights, and is not supported by the authors or Microsoft Corporation. Use of included script samples are subject to the terms specified in the Terms of Use.

Yes this is only for MDT 2008 - MDT 2010 includes a wait for IP by default. However you could perform other actions in the batch file such as checking for appropriate DHCP addresses, network connections, shares to become active, etc you could use the sme methodology.

Patrick L Cartier

29 Dec 2009 8:25 PM

Team,

I am hoping that you may have a solution to my issue with MDT

I am running into a block that I cannot fix... I have searched and tried everything including the suggestion to edit the ZTI Vbs script. I get either the PCN Device has no drivers or when I edit the bootstrap.ini with an IP address instead of machine name and I get the Possible Cause: Invalid Credentials error.

I am tring to use MDT to deploy Windows XP SP3 as well as Windows 7 but my problem is with Windows XP.

Well here is what I have completed so far:

I am running MDT 2010 on a Windows XP SP3 machine, I installed VM Ware Workstation 7.0, created an Windows XP installation ISO image in MDT, updated the Out of the Box driver with VM Virtual Driver. I edited the bootstrap ini with:

[Settings]

Priority=Default

[Default]

DeployRoot=\\167.155.38.211\WindowsXP-Share$

UserDomain=PPL

UserID=e162936

UserPassword ************

The CustomSettings with:

[Settings]

Priority=Default

Properties=MyCustomProperty

[Default]

OSInstall=Y

SkipAppsOnUpgrade=YES

SkipCapture=NO

SkipAdminPassword=YES

SkipProductKey=YES

I then created a VM machine I tried editing the VM network settings to us Host, Bridged, or NAT....changed the IP address setting in VMware... no luck at all. After clicking Deploy the error message hits...

I'm facing a similar issue as above and it is only with Windows XP that this issue is surfacing. Not with Windows 7 or Vista. Need help! :)

Jor-el

23 Feb 2010 1:24 AM

This is because u are using AIK tool of windows 7 and it is not compatibel with xp

Craig Wallace

23 Jun 2011 4:05 PM

Hello. Where in MDT Update is the batch file that is waiting for the network? I have upgrade to MDT 2010 update1 and have the same issue with the task sequence starting before i have a network ip address.